How to Find Yourself In Life: 6 Tips and Strategies
Finding yourself can be quite challenging so it’s no surprise many people have trouble with it. After all, it requires a great amount of time and effort to figure out who you truly are as a person. But you can make this process easier by taking certain actions. Wondering what you need to do to find yourself in life? Here is everything you should know.
1. Take a Look At Your Life Story
Every person has a history. A life story full of experiences and memories that shaped them into who they are today.
When you’re trying to find yourself, you should start with analyzing your life story. Why? Because it can help you make more sense of your behaviors, attitudes, values, and thoughts.
This in turn can give you hints about the hidden aspects of your personality. And the more of them you’ll find, the better you’ll get to know yourself.
Finally, don’t forget that your life story is like an art in progress; it’s an ongoing work. This means that you should analyze it regularly to make sure you won’t miss anything.
2. Know When to Cooperate With Your Inner Critic
Many people have that rude and annoying voice in their heads known as an inner critic. It automatically tells you what a failure you are when things don’t go according to your plans. Or that you are never enough.
As a result, you may decide to ignore this voice or suppress it in one way or the other. And while that can seem like a good idea considering all the negativity it brings, it may cause you problems too.
But the thing about the inner critic is that it’s not always wrong. Sometimes it tells you things about yourself you know on a subconscious level but never consciously processed them.
Some of these can be exactly the things that hold the key to finding yourself. But because you automatically reject anything your inner critic tells you, you end up ignoring them too.
In other words, learn when to fight your inner critic and when to listen to it. Contradict it when it’s unfairly insulting you and listen to it when it’s telling you something valuable. Even if it is painful to hear.
And while it can be difficult to distinguish between these two at first, you’ll get better at it in time so don’t give up.
3. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Life has a lot to offer and the best way to benefit from it is to step out of your comfort zone. Oftentimes, it’s exactly your comfort zone that prevents you from exposing yourself to new challenges.
This in turn prevents you from discovering your hidden talents, traits, strengths, and weaknesses. So if you want to learn more about yourself, you should leave your comfort zone as often as you can.
And while that can be easier said than done, remind yourself that at some point, you’ll find it way easier and more natural to do so. But until that time comes, try to stay patient and dedicated to your goal.
4. Keep Expanding Your Knowledge
The world is vast and it contains all kinds of knowledge that can help you make more sense of it. There are countless books of great value that can help you on your self-discovery journey. Be it fiction or non-fiction.
For example, if you prefer non-fiction, you can read self-help books that can help you find yourself. But if you would rather read fiction literature, you can certainly find a lot of self-discovery books that can give you the epiphany you need.
It’s important to mention that these books don’t outwardly tell you who you are. Rather, they help you see who you are by providing you with interesting insights and wisdom.
5. Evaluate Your Value System
Your value system is a collection of personal values; the things you support and believe in. These values are usually shaped by your culture and household dynamics.
But the tricky thing about values is that sometimes they are automatically handed to you rather than you discovering them yourself.
For example, let’s say you grew up in a religious household so your parents expected you to adopt their values from your childhood.
But then you became an adult and started wondering how much of it you actually believed in.
And this phenomenon is quite common because we often automatically inherit someone else’s values. Especially as a child.
But at some point, you may start to feel alienated from those values because you can’t connect with them any longer.
6. Embrace Change
Nothing in life is constant and everything keeps changing, including your personality. Especially after going through hardships and unpleasant life experiences, changing you in ways you didn’t expect or don’t want to accept.
And so you push these parts of yourself away, lying to yourself that you don’t possess those traits or qualities.
But this is the very thing that causes you to feel alienated from your true self and makes you confused about who you are as a person.
So what you should do instead is to accept these new parts of you. Then you can change whatever you don’t like and embrace whatever is harmless or even beneficial.
In other words, don’t be afraid to let the old parts of you die to make way for the new ones. Because that’s the only way to discover a new you and become an authentic version of yourself.
Why Finding Yourself Is Important In Life
Finding yourself is crucial because it helps you live a fulfilling and meaningful life. When you know yourself, you’re able to make decisions that are harmoniously aligned with your values, interests, passions, and life purpose. All of which can ensure that you’ll have as little regrets in life as it’s humanely possible.
Final Thoughts
Finding yourself is a personal journey that every individual should embark on to uncover their true self and better navigate through life. But as thrilling as this process can be, it’s undeniably challenging as well, so try not to feel disheartened if it’s difficult at first. All that matters is for you to not give up and continue on your path of self-discovery.
